Netflix Founder Reed Hastings Steps Down as CEO

Netflix's founder and chief executive for 25 years, Reed Hastings, is stepping down from his co-CEO role to serve instead as the streaming giant's executive chairman. Current

co-CEO Ted Sarandos will remain in his role, and he will be joined by new co-CEO Greg Peters, who has been Netflix's chief operating officer for three years and chief product

officer for six.   The succession was announced Thursday as Netflix reported better-than-expected growth in the fourth quarter, to end a turbulent year that earlier included

the company's first subscriber losses in a decade.  Netflix, the world's dominant streaming-video subscription service, said members increased by 7.66 million to 230.75

million total between October and December. That beats Netflix's October's guidance to add 4.5 million new members, anticipating that membership would actually be 227.59 million.

It also beats analysts' average expectation, which was slightly more optimistic at 4.57 million new members, according to Refinitiv. Shares were up 4.7% percent at $330.49

after hours. Through the close, the stock has lost more than a third of its value in the last 12 months as Netflix's membership-growth drama and worries about the wider economy

made investors anxious. In a separate post about his decision to step down as chief, Hastings wrote that he had already been delegating the management of Netflix to Sarandos

and Peters for more than two years.